Collective Movement Method for Swarm Robot based on a Thermodynamic Model

Abstract

Abstract-In this paper, a distributed collective movement control method is proposed for a swarm robotics system based on an internal energy thermodynamic model. The system can move between obstacles with a changing aggregation suitable for confronting obstacle arrangements in an environment. The swarm robot shape is a fixed aggregation formed by virtual attraction and repulsion forces based on the proposed method. It follows a leader agent while retaining its shape. When the swarm robot aggregation shape cannot be maintained during movement though narrow spaces with obstacles, the swarm robot flexibly changes shape according to that of the local environment. To this end, it employs virtual thermal motion, which is made possible with directives and enables continuous movement. A simulation confirmed the capability of the proposed method in enabling the solidity and flexibility collective movement of swarm robots. The results furthermore showed that the parameter setting range is important for applying the proposed method to collective movement.

Regular Tessellation-Based Collective Movement for a Robot Swarm with Varying Densities, Scales, and Shapes

“…We focus on the properties of the proposed method for hexagonal and honeycomb lattices. By introducing an angular potential, the proposed method can detect and adjust the structural changes caused by moving faster than the distance-potential-only collective movement method in the previous study [16]. As a result, the proposed method achieves high collective movement efficiency even for large values of Pw.…”

“…Interactions in the direction of the leader are weighted higher than interactions away from the leader. In a previous study [16], this approach was applied only to the distance potential. This study formulates a collective movement model for followers that introduces additional weights to the model potentials as follows:…”

“…In contrast, many existing collective movement methods control robots using interaction models without angular potentials. As a comparison, we employ a similar swarm behavior model for maintaining a high-density shape in an open space without obstacles that also applies the same Lennard-Jones potential and leader-follower control scheme as shown in our previous study [16]. We apply this existing method to a robot swarm initially arranged in a latticed structure and track their movement trajectories during collective movement.…”

“…In this study, we design a virtual interaction to construct lattice-based swarm shapes without the physical restriction of joints, such as the joint limits of modular robots. In our previous study, we proposed a collective movement using a distance-based local interaction based on the Lennard-Jones potential, an intermolecular potential [16]. This potential converges into a hexagonal close-packed structure, as described above.…”

Swarm Robotics: A Perspective on the Latest Reviewed Concepts and Applications

“…The authors state that this work proves the efficiency of simple rules to reproduce an improved collaborative foraging behavior. Yamagishi and Suzuki [ 118 ] suggested a new swarm-robot distributed movement control approach supported on a thermodynamic representation. The suggested procedure allows the collective movement of a group of robots among obstructions with a variable aggregation appropriate for facing obstruction disposals in the ambiance.…”